Water plays second fiddle to space

At “Elements: An Eco Art Conference,” water will be the main topic. We are seeking to bring artists – and our work – together so that we can help our planet. We have a duty to ensure that the water in our world remains able to sustain healthy life.

In the Western world we take clean water for granted. We have easy access to it. Although many of us rather not drink directly from the tap, our tap water is rather good. Growing up in Ecuador I would have never dreamt to drink water directly from the tap. We boiled our water daily. And we were the lucky ones. We had access to rather clean water that needed only some boiling.

A significant number of people do not have access to this. As a matter of fact, the United Nations recently announced that dirty water kills more people than wars. Clean water cannot be taken for granted. The lives of countless people and the life of our planet depend on it.

This is why it’s imperative that we treat the world’s waters with the respect they deserve. I’m not talking only about fresh drinking water, but also the ocean water. Plankton, after all, sustains all life on Earth. Therefore, I find it reprehensible that a gigantic mass of garbage is currently floating in the Pacific Ocean.

A while back I contacted environmentalists to see if it would be possible to fish out the plastic and have artists use it somehow. I was shot down because the plastic is not that easy to fish out.  Not being a scientist, I figured I would let the experts deal with it. I am glad that the Seaplex expedition is trying to do something about it. (You can follow them at http://twitter.com/seaplexscience.)

Now, you can only imagine how irate I became when I learned about the CubeSail parachute project. This contraption is basically a small satellite with a massive sail. Its mission is to clean debris from space – things like old satellites, rocket parts, etc. – that floating around endangering newer technology and interfering with satellite communications.

The CubeSail is yet another example of how we look up to the skies more than we do to our own surroundings. It’s horrific that we have the technology to clear outer space, but not our oceans. Outer space enables our communications, yes. But it’s the ocean and its waters that sustain life on Earth, including our own. How about we rethink our cleaning priorities?

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